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Tuesday, March 11, 2003

BBC talks to six Iraqi people. It is a good reading for people who want to find out what the Iraqis really think about the war. Here are a few snippets.

Emanuel Shamoun: "The years of sanctions on us here have made things very difficult for me and all ordinary people. The economy is ruined. It is very hard to make a living. Everyone is like me - working all our waking hours just to live."

Gulzar Ahmad: "They raped a woman who was in our ward and killed her afterwards. They threw her body in the desert to be eaten by wild dogs. So many women died in this way. We used to see dead bodies being eaten by the wild dogs every day. They treated us like animals. I can still see all this in my mind today."

Dr Mohammed Muthaffar Adhami: "The Americans' plan is to occupy the oil fields, to overthrow the Iraqi national government, to divide up Iraq, and to solve the Palestinian question to the benefit of the Israelis. It will allow the Americans to control the whole world because if we talk about oil, Iraq is a lake of oil. The last drop of oil in the world will be in Iraq."

Abu Abbas: "As much as we are afraid of Saddam, we are afraid that the Americans might also indiscriminately target the civilian infrastructure as they did in 1991...(but)... People have lost a lot already. They would pay the ultimate price, if they knew they were going to get something decent for their children."

Maysoon Nejhat Shukri: "While I don't want a war in Iraq because of what it will do to the people, all I want is for the regime to be changed. I want freedom in Iraq.....People in the Turkmen community are willing to pay with their lives for regime change. Everybody has lost one or two people from their household. But we are the quiet nationality in the country, we like peace."

Mam Rostam: "To our surprise, when Saddam Hussein flew his helicopters to crush us, Mr Bush turned his back on us and went fishing. I hope his son is not going to do the same... When Saddam retaliated, our situation was desperate. Millions of us had to once again flee to the cold mountains. People were dying by the thousands every day."